A permit record is the closest thing home improvement has to a paper trail. Here is what it shows — and what it cannot tell you.
Every time a contractor does permitted work on a home in Miami-Dade, a public record is created: the address, the date, the kind of work, what the job was valued at, and the company that pulled the permit. Radar reads those records from the county and city permit offices. This page explains how to read them like an inspector would.
How much work, and how recently. A roofer who pulled 40 residential permits in the last year is running an active local crew. A company with two permits in three years may be new, may work mostly in another county, or may do most jobs without permits — each possibility means something different, and it is worth asking about.
The size of jobs they usually take. Permit values are the declared value of the work. A company whose typical re-roof is valued around $18,000 works a different market than one whose typical job is $60,000. Neither is better — but you want the one whose normal job looks like yours.
Whether they work near you. Permits cluster. A contractor with steady work in your part of the county knows the local inspectors, the local housing stock, and the local failure points — roof shapes, drainage, wind rules.
A permit shows a job was filed and inspected. It does not grade the workmanship, the cleanup, or whether the homeowner would hire the company again. Permit history answers "are they real, active, and experienced at this kind of job?" It does not answer "will they treat you well?" For that you still need references, a written contract, and a license check.
Pick a trade and a ZIP code. Radar finds every residential permit for that trade within about 5 miles over the last 12 months (further out only if fewer than ten companies work that close), groups them by the company that pulled them, and ranks companies by how many jobs they did. In the 12 months to October 2026, Miami-Dade records alone show about 14,500 residential permits across roughly 3,200 companies — the report turns that pile of records into one page you can act on.
Get your free report: the contractors who did the most jobs like yours near you this past year.
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